I was reminded this week about a popular carpeting urban myth. A customer I was chatting to turned to her friend and said “you shouldn’t hoover your carpet too much or you’ll wear it out”.

Completely the opposite is actually true, you should vacuum as often as your time allows!

Think of your carpet as being like your hair, it too is has strands and needs a comb/vacuum as often as your hair does. Just like human hair it can trap dust and tiny pieces of grit in its fibres. This has a three fold effect on your carpet:

Firstly, the dust and dirt can make your carpet look dull and tired looking
Secondly, you need to remove it to allow air to circulate around natural fibres to help them breath and all types of fibres still need room to move and revive
Thirdly, health issues – wool will actually hold onto dust particles until vacuumed but synthetic fibres don’t, so the later is not so good for those with breathing issues or allergies
When a carpet comes out of the factory there is often quite a bit of fluff and fibre stuck in amongst the pile. It’s even more crucial to keep vacuuming it when it’s new to help remove all the manufacturing debris.

One word of warning though – never scrub at your carpet with the vacuum nozzle or tools. You can do damage to the pile this way. Also, make sure you are using the right type of vacuum cleaner for the type of carpet you have i.e. don’t use a cleaner with an old fashioned beater bar on loop carpets, just suction.